Hello everybody,
I'm new in this forum. I'm from Belgium and my english is not perfect! Sorry!
I would like to know the year of fabrication of my "new" Linhof Super Technika.
The number is : 23202.
Someone can help me?
Thank's
Yousse

Bob Salomon

16-Aug-2011, 07:30

Where did you find that serial number? It is not in the records. What size camera do you have?

youssefcardinal

16-Aug-2011, 11:39

It's a 9x12cm. It is inside the cover. Just below "Linhof Munchen"

Bob Salomon

16-Aug-2011, 11:50

Best post some pictures. It seems that you might not have a III but a Medezin or a II from the WWII period.

Well, from the pictures it is not a III. The III was introduced after WWII and was manufactured from 1946 to 1957. The III has a rangefinder housing that is level with the body casting. Yours is below the bady casting and the lock knob above the rangefinder housing is on top of the body on a III.

More telling are the initials on the top of the camera body. They are from the period before the war ended.

Valdecus

16-Aug-2011, 14:09

More telling are the initials on the top of the camera body. They are from the period before the war ended.

The camera accepts without problem the back 4x5 inch of a Linhof Technika III and without modifications!?!

Bob Salomon

17-Aug-2011, 12:32

The camera accepts without problem the back 4x5 inch of a Linhof Technika III and without modifications!?!

If it is a 9x12 it will not accept 4x5 film holders or roll backs or accessories at all unless you change the back for a 45 one. I can not tell you if your camera accepts newer backs but a complete 45 back will be expensive.

youssefcardinal

17-Aug-2011, 12:53

I was very lucky. I found a 4x5 full back for 130€ in Germany and my camera accept it.
I can take pictures now!
I have send the serial number to Linhof Germany to know exactly the model and year.

youssefcardinal

18-Aug-2011, 01:07

I have sent an email to Linhof Germany with the serial number. They replied: "many thanks for your inquiry. This old model should be a Technika III 9x12, approximately built in the beginning of 1950."

Valdecus

18-Aug-2011, 02:04

Hhm, that is strange. The back and the main body implies that it is a Technika built before the end of the war and not the post-war Technika III.

When you say that the serial# was found 'inside the cover', are you referring to the drop-down baseboard with the extension rails? If so, maybe this part was swapped later and the camera is a mixture of two models?

The Linhof Camera Book also contains another hint to maybe solve the puzzle. On the last page it states:
"Rather different, in fact quite illegitimate, were a few cameras assembled from original Linhof components - though neither at nor by Linhof - for the black market of the early postwar year. Identified by their fake serial numbers, these irregulars were known within the firm as "Plant III" products. (At the time Linhof only had two production plants.)"

Cheers,
Andreas

youssefcardinal

18-Aug-2011, 04:20

When you say that the serial# was found 'inside the cover', are you referring to the drop-down baseboard with the extension rails?

Yes, exactly!

A mix of models or the black market is probably the good way.

Thank you

Chauncey Walden

18-Aug-2011, 15:12

Interesting. Both of my 4x5 Technikas have the Reich markings and serial numbers 53xx and 56xx. "Plant III" or just a decade older than I thought they were? Bob, what are the differences between a II and an early III?

Bob Salomon

19-Aug-2011, 07:42

Interesting. Both of my 4x5 Technikas have the Reich markings and serial numbers 53xx and 56xx. "Plant III" or just a decade older than I thought they were? Bob, what are the differences between a II and an early III?

53 and 56 are part of a series of III made between Sept 1955 and Aug of 1957. The series are serial numbers 50,001 to 62,236. So yours are towards the middle of the period.

Technika II had no rangefinder, a peep site and folding frame. It was also lighter then all later Technika cameras. The III is more similar to a late Technika Medizin camera which was made from 1936 till the end of the war in 45 (depending on the model). The last Medizin and the first III were essentially the same cameras in different finishes.
What distinguished the Medizin series was its washable cream lacquer finish so the body could be disinfected for use in labs.

Chauncey Walden

19-Aug-2011, 14:12

Thanks, Bob, but mine are 5 thousand 300 and 600, not 50,000. The corners are bright, rounded and the leather inserts are in recessed panels. The front standards are normal III types. Do you suppose there were some very early III's that they continued to mark with the Reich patents? Didn't the II's have square black corners so these are not rehashed II bodies? That said, I believe the extending back pieces that have the Reich patents (along with Made in Germany - not West Germany) could be from II's made earlier for the US market as the corners look almost hand rounded and are possibly reworked from square ones. Probably a story in here somewhere. If it weren't for the fact that I have two of them 300 serial numbers apart and identical, one might suspect a frankencamera.

Bob Salomon

19-Aug-2011, 15:38

Thanks, Bob, but mine are 5 thousand 300 and 600, not 50,000. The corners are bright, rounded and the leather inserts are in recessed panels. The front standards are normal III types. Do you suppose there were some very early III's that they continued to mark with the Reich patents? Didn't the II's have square black corners so these are not rehashed II bodies? That said, I believe the extending back pieces that have the Reich patents (along with Made in Germany - not West Germany) could be from II's made earlier for the US market as the corners look almost hand rounded and are possibly reworked from square ones. Probably a story in here somewhere. If it weren't for the fact that I have two of them 300 serial numbers apart and identical, one might suspect a frankencamera.

5002 to 6221 are Technika III cameras made from Oct 1946 to Jun 54. So not too strange..